The largest province in Canada that imposed a holiday ban to avoid the “catastrophic” falls of Covid

Ford spoke for hours after a senior health official warned that Ontario’s ability to control the spread of Covid-19 was still “very precarious.”

Following Quebec’s leadership: Ontario followed neighboring Quebec, which reintroduced tougher measures at the start of the holiday season. Quebec, which is the second most populous province in the country, is holding private meetings for the vast majority of Quebecers between December 17 and January 10.

Combined, Ontario and Quebec are home to over 23 million people or even over 60% of Canada’s population.

Ontario closures: The new restrictions will be in place for four weeks in the province’s much denser populated south, which includes cities such as Toronto and Ottawa. In smaller towns and communities in northern Ontario, isolation measures will be in place for two weeks.

The measures take effect at 12:01 am ET on December 26th.

These include closing personal shopping at most retail stores, banning indoor and outdoor dining, restricting indoor access to shopping malls and limiting meetings for members of the same household.

Asked why Ontario did not immediately impose tougher measures, Ford said it wanted to give businesses a breather. He added that he wants to be fair to businesses with large inventories, as well as those that will be forced to close for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

A look at Ontario: The pandemic has put significant pressure on Ontario’s health care system. Ford has said in recent weeks that hospitalizations have risen by 70 percent and intensive care hospitalizations by 80 percent.

“Our ability to control the growth of cases is still very precarious,” Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of Covid-19’s scientific advisory board in Ontario, told a news conference Monday after launching updated models for the province. “This continued low-level growth that we have seen only adds to increasing pressures and eliminates more and more of our ability to control the growth of the pandemic.”

Brown, who is also dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, said the increase in cases of about one percent has remained steady over the past two months, despite warnings from authorities.

“As for the length of the blockade, … we don’t think anything less than four weeks will be effective and the longer durations will be more effective – six weeks offers a significant significant reduction in the number of cases,” he said.

Ottawa, the capital of Canada, was a bright spot in the province in terms of Covid control. But Ford said that despite its resistance, Ottawa will also be blocked due to concerns about a potential influx of visitors from nearby Quebec.

Covid-19 Statute of Canada: The country has recorded an average of 177.8 new cases of Covid daily in the past seven days, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center data compiled by the National Bank of Canada.

In comparison, the same data set said that an average of 654.9 new cases were reported in the United States each day last week.

The Canadian Public Health Agency said Monday that the country has reported 507,795 cases since the beginning of the pandemic and 14,228 deaths. Health authorities are also monitoring the genetic variant of the Covid-19 virus that has been identified in the United Kingdom.

Ford said it was also “extremely alarmed” by reports of a new strain of the virus, which is much more contagious. He called it “an extremely serious threat”, which must be taken seriously.

He called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to impose tougher measures at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, where he said 63,000 arrive a week from abroad.

Ford said it had asked the Trudeau government “week after week” about testing at the airport.

“Why he ignores us in this regard is beyond me,” Ford said, adding that there are not enough people coming to the country who follow the quarantine rules. “These people roam the streets and we let it happen.”

Economic consequences: Canada’s economy, like many around the world, has taken a beating from coronavirus blockages.

Small and medium-sized enterprises have been among the hardest hit, and the prospect of additional weeks of restrictions fuels fears of more economic damage.

“Whether you support or oppose the additional blockade in Ontario, reserve a thought for the thousands of small business owners who will lose everything they worked as a result of this decision,” said Dan Kelly, President and CEO of the Canadian Business Federation. independent wrote on Twitter on Monday. “Business owners are hanging by a thread and the Ontario government is about to cut it.”

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